The Roman baths were coincidentally the stinkiest place on our tour of England so far. This is because of the deep-earth gasses that bubble up and heat the pool. After 2000 years, I don’t think I’ll be having a dip in them any time soon…
Jokes aside, I was astounded by the history of the baths. The nearly 2 millennia old ruin was restored in the late 19th century, but much of the original architecture remained. I was really impressed by the “Gorgon face” that remained. It’s a real cultural mystery. It’s a masculine face with a beard, wings, and snakes intertwined with hair that disperses as if the face had just fallen backwards into a stream. Historians theorize that the Gorgan face is a mesh of Celtic and Roman cultures: just like the people of the Roman Bath meshed the Celtic water god Sulis with the Roman god Minerva to create Minerva Sulis whose shrine is at Bath. However, historians truly don’t know the exact significance of the Gorgon face and may never know. It is undoubtedly an amalgamation of Celtic and Roman imagery though.
There is one mystery of the Roman baths that has been recently solved. There is a large and expensive Roman hairstyle preserved in the busts they left behind at the baths. The audio guide claims that experts still don’t know how this hairstyle was accomplished, but according to Callie they figured it out a couple years ago! Hair stylists figured out you can create the look by tying large curls together with thread. This is likely why only the wealthy took this fashion. It would have taken a lot of time to have someone tie dozens of knots in your hair.
I got to taste some Roman spring water as part of the tour. As you could guess, it had the savory taste of heavy metals. No mystery there.
Otherwise, the town of Bath reminded me a lot of Eureka Springs. A lot of tourims, decent food, and street performers. I wish I had the energy when I was there to dance to a trumpeter’s “Oops!… I Did It Again.”
The Jane Austen and Mary Shelley museums were really interesting and well made, but I think I would’ve enjoyed them more if I had read any work by either author. If anything, these museums made me want to read their literature.
Theatre in London U of A 